What's New !!!!
News Flash 2 (March 6, 2006)
Karen and I can make you custom stopper stands to help display your
collection. Please feel free to e-mail Karen at the address listed at the
bottom of this page and we'll send you some pictures and pricing for our
standard models. Send us your requirements if you have something special
in mind.
News Flash 1 (February 14, 2005)
Whoo Hoo !! Karen recently made a find that makes all of those fruitless
trips to all the antique shops in every city we visit worth the effort.
Karen recently had one of those milestone birthdays, and as a gift I took
her to Pomona California to do some perusing through the local antique shops
and to attend the Winternationals Drag Race as a spectator. ( Like how I
snuck the drag race into a trip that's supposed to be a present for Karen :-)
It was raining on Friday when we arrived, so we decided that we would visit
the antique district on that day since racing doesn't work very well in the
rain. Karen had the address for all of the shops in Pomona, which happened to
be convienently located all next to each other in the older section of town.
We walked through the 1st small shop without seeing anything of interest and
headed into the 2nd shop. This shop was 30,000 square feet of smaller shops and
had lots of tall glass display cases containing small items. Anri hunting is
more fun in these types of shops due to the vast quantity of items they tend to
cram into each case.
I was walking in front of Karen taking a quick look in each case trying to be
the 1st one to spot something. I frequently miss items because my eye isn't as
well trained. I usually locate the kissers and hat tippers, but the less common
items elude me.
I glanced through the first 2 cases and moved on to the 3rd. On the middle shelf
in the front of the case was an old black metal and chrome set of opera glasses
that were identical to a set I had when I as a kid. I pointed them out to Karen
remarking that I used to have a set and that I spent hours playing with them.
Karen glanced over and went a bit white exclaiming "Oh My God !!!! I was a bit
perplexed about such a strong reaction to my trivial find. I looked at her and her
eyes were glued on the center shelf where the opera glasses were located. I was
about to inquire about her new found attractoin to old opera glasses when she
pointed at an item 3 inches behind the glasses I had pointed out to her and
exclaimed " It's all there !!!"
After looking again, I finally saw what had caught her attention. A complete
Cannibals bar set !! Karen has been keeping her eye out for one of these ever
since she purchased the 3 elements that go in this bar set a number of years ago.
The shop was huge and we had just started looking, so I made the suggestion that
we keep looking around and come back to this item after we had made a full trip
through all of the displays. After all I rationalized, " It's probably been sitting
there for months, it can't go anywhere in the next hour."
I instantaneously realized that this was the wrong answer and summoned the
operator of the shop over to unlock the case so that we could take a look. I won't
divulge the price, but the tag reflected a price that was obscenely low for an
item of this rarity and condition. The clerk also pointed out that everything in
that particular booth was an additional 20% off. Needless to say, we had it placed
behind the sales counter to hold for us while we looked through the rest of the
booths.
45 minutes later, after discovering the requisite 3 common kissing couple stoppers,
1 hat tipper, and a small figurine, we exited the store with Karen's newest treasure
safely packed for the trip home. Hunting for additional ANRI pieces is always
enjoyable, but this find definitely made the trip exciting. There are some
additional images of this find under the "Bar Set's" category.. Happy Hunting !!
Mark and Karen Carrington
email Karen: karen@carringtonfamily.com
